Craft knives such as pen cutters are familiar tools to many people due to their convenient size and ease of use. Typical pen cutters have the shape and dimensions of a pen, e.g. a generally straight “handle”, with a short blade at its tip. Unlike e.g. carving knives, craft knives are intended for shorter duration of use, to cut various materials such as sheets of paper, felt, or plastic, e.g. for various craft projects. Many pen cutters come with a detachable safety cap that covers the blade when the pen cutter is not in use. This creates a hazardous situation in two instances. First, when the pen cutter is temporarily being set aside for brief periods during a longer project, the blade remains exposed as it is inconvenient to replace the cap each time the cutter is used. Second, the fact that many pen cutters have a detachable cap means that the cap typically becomes separated from the pen cutter itself during use, and is thus easily lost. Both situations temporarily or permanently leave a pen cutter with an exposed blade, and an increased risk for accidental cuts and injuries to materials, objects or persons results.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a craft knife with increased safety functionality that is easy to use and that prevents the blade from being unnecessarily exposed. The exemplary disclosed cutting device and method of the present disclosure is directed to overcoming one or more of the shortcomings set forth above and/or other deficiencies in existing technology.